In This Home
by Nagumo
Summary: Parents have their own troubles. Their own secrets. Their own lives. An AU story speculating the lives of Sakurazaki Setsuko and Zaio Chen Hou. Shinmeiryuu swordswoman and Uzoku demon.
1. August

For some odd reason, I keep on imagining that Setsuna's father is Chinese and proud of it. A tall and darkly handsome man… like Jet Li, Rick Yune or Ken Watanabe… I think I watch too many martial arts movies or fan girl Asian male actors a wee bit too much.

In any case, I decided to be rather pretentious and litter all sorts of Chinese stuff in this fanfic despite not knowing a thing about Chinese culture beyond Hong Kong martial arts movie flicks and reading wikipedia.

**Tatarimokke** - This Soul Piper yokai plays with the souls of dead children while they linger in this world, playing music for them on its flute. If a child's soul becomes hateful and malicious, the tatarimokke's eyes open and the soul is dragged to hell. This demon is from Inuyasha, borrowed for the sake of this fic.

Feel free to criticize and read it up on wikipedia!

* * *

It was the summer of 1988. The sticky humid heat of the Kansai region was living up to it's reputation in the ancient city of Kyoto. Scarcely could a person stand outside without feeling drops of sweat forming on their skin, making their clothes stick and mouths run dry from the heat.

It was because of the heat that only the most stalwart of tourists would endure wandering around Nishikyo ward to see the sparse sights there. Thus the streets were unusually quiet as everyone attempted to endure the oppressive August heat by hiding in their homes.

Residents attempted to beat back the heat with electric fans, ice and drinking cool barley tea. Those who had benefited from the bubble economy and bought their own air conditioners were cursed secretly under the breath of the envious… politely as was the Kyoto custom of course.

In any case, only a madman or someone inhuman would willingly lounge around outside.

Which brought about the current unpleasant situation for a woman of Kyoto who was forced to exit her home to go into the garden of her home.

She was a Japanese woman of average height with dark black eyes and hair, there were perhaps one of the few unremarkable things about her. It was the nature by which she held herself, the confident gait, callused hands and the lone scar that cut horizontally on her cheek that marked her as different from most normal people.

That and she was dressed in red hakima's and a white haori.

For all the posturing of a true warrior that woman held herself, if one looked into her eyes, they would find it unfocused with a tinge of unwarrior-like panic.

There was a very simple reason for that.

Sakurazaki Setsuko, swordswoman of the Shinmei Ryu, was pregnant.

Again.

The familiar press of panic at the realization weighed down upon her when she found herself sick in the morning for the last few days. Then she went to her local doctor for a check and confirmed her fears. The summer heat did make her feel any better and the sword saint was barely comforted by the presence of her would-be husband in the garden.

Her would-be 400 plus year old Chinese Uyoku crow demon husband, Zaio Chen Hou, who was currently lounging about in his demon form on a tree branch in the garden of their home. He looked as though today was the most pleasant of all days to dress in dark colors. His black cheongsam was smooth with nary a wrinkle or tear but seemed pale compared to his luxurious black feathers. The heat and humidity clearly did not ruffle his feathers so to speak.

He was also not in his human form.

She looked up at him with annoyance.

"Chen…" Setsuko couldn't help but use a sharp tone with him. She had told him numerous of times that using his natural demon form in Kyoto was a bad idea but he almost never listened.

'My illusion magic and protection wards keep the house safe from prying eyes. No need for me to polymorph myself while I am in my own abode,' was always his response when she nagged him about it.

"Hm?" A lazy sigh of musing was her reward. The crow demon stretched from his perch on the branch and looked down on her with some amusement.

"… I'm pregnant."

Crash.

Zaio Chen Hou fell off his perch in surprise and landed on his back. It was unbecoming of a demon of his caliber and age but one did not hear from his mate, 'I'm pregnant', often.

"Again? So soon? I thought it would take at least another 10 years of trying! This is wondrous news!" Chen Hou immediately jumped on his feet and looked over Setsuko to see if the child from his loins was progressing naturally. He could see that Setsuko did seem to be a bit wider around the hips but not very much.

"… Humans don't take 10 years of effort to get pregnant…"

"Oh yes, I forgot. Anyways, that's besides the point! Is it a girl? Humans have created machines to divine the future gender of the child, no."

"… Chen, I don't think I… I can keep this child…" Setsuko slowly said. It was a familiar line, one that she had practiced hundreds of time. Though this was the second time she had actually used it, it wasn't any easier than the first time.

Chen didn't bother hiding the look of disappointment from his face.

"Ah, you can't forgive yourself yet?" Chen asked, saddened by his wife's words. He knew why, he had heard the tale before from Setsuko.

"It's been awhile since I've seen him and his sister in my dreams. But he still looks angry," Setsuko admitted. Her hands tightened into fists and pressed themselves against her stomach.

"You were only thirteen. There was nothing you can do," Chen whispered as he reached out to his wife. His wings unwrapped themselves to shield her from the glaring sun and he let her rest on his chest. The black feathers and stiff black robe tickled Setsuko's face and she heard Chen's low rumbling heart.

"I keep on thinking… that is how any child I have with you will end up; dead from the blade of another," Setsuko whispered in fear.

"I would never allow it," Chen claimed heatedly.

"They will know the child isn't human."

"My magic is good enough that I can practically live in this nest of delusional self-righteous demon slaying barbarians…"

"Chen…"

"I mean, dedicated zealous protectors of humanity, for the last five years and no one has noticed! Not even the vaunted Lady Konoe Suiko who we met last month. My illusion spells are excellent and have yet to fail."

Setsuko stopped arguing for a moment. She buried her face into Chen's feathers and thought to herself.

Even now, the thought of having children horrified her. How could she, after all, her hands were stained with the blood of children. Children like the one growing in her body.

A hanyou. A union of humanity and the supernatural.

The Shinmei-ryu declared them all to be abominations, worthy only for elimination. So it was written in the annals of the Shinmei-ryu, so it is spoken on the lips of it's sword saints, so it is executed with their blades without mercy.

And so did she, a scant ten years ago.

So did she.

She could still see the body of the half-demon boy, Hisoga Seiji, who she cut down so many years ago. Her blade coated in his blood, and his curses still ringing in her ear. She was thirteen, he was twelve, bound by a whimsy of fate that allowed them to become friends. She didn't know his secret until at last it was revealed his mother was the fox demon who was devouring the souls of the unwary in secret.

The five-tailed fox demon, Arashi no Oyome, did so in secret for fifteen years so that she could remain with her mortal husband. In Kyoto of all places, without detection from the Kansai Magic Association.

It embarrassed the Shinmei-ryu utterly.

But Setsuko didn't know, until she pressed into the hunt for the Hisoga children. She didn't want to but her master forced her to. The then young girl prayed she never found Seiji but her prayer went unanswered.

The Shinmei-ryu demanded that all with the tainted blood of demons be slain. It was the gospel truth that demons were all evil, full of malice and hatred. There was nothing to gain in sparing them.

Seiji was not evil, nor full of malice and hatred. He was a handsome boy with a quick smile and laugh, he loved eating oden and playing hide and go seek. He was smart, full of wit and clever pranks up his sleeves. He was her friend.

He was hopelessly naïve and foolish. Seiji knew that she was a Shinmei-ryu swordswoman yet he believed that Setsuko could somehow protect him and help save his sister. As she vowed to, with pride, as a warrior of good and friend in one of their silly games.

He was wrong and Setsuko was a liar. Setsuko was too afraid to think of the consequences of allowing a hanyou live or disobeying her school and master.

She could still hear him screaming in pain and rage.

'You promised me! You promised me! YOU PROMISED ME!'

She couldn't take it any more and flailed her sword to silence him. Stroke after stroke but not a single one silenced him. At last, she stabbed her blade right through his heart in desperation over and over. His death cry was more of a screaming fox than a human child. She hadn't expected his warm blood to spray her clothing as she stabbed downward. The sticky coppery blood stained her face and clung to her clothing.

Some of it got into her mouth. The coppery taste of blood made Setsuko empty her stomach in horror.

Then she had to look for Seiji's little ten year old sister, Aya. Setsuko prayed that she never find her but fate was cruel again. Aya hid in the bushes, not very far from were Setsuko had killed Seiji.

The young kitsune hanyou said nothing at first but stared at her. Stared with eyes of fear and desperate hope of a savior to appear. Then the look disappeared as she realized that Setsuko had decided.

The swordswoman could not be her savior. Setsuko did not choose to do what was just and good, she choose what she had been taught and trained for as a Shinmei-ryu.

Aya, in a voice so cold and so inhuman that it could only have come from her demonic heritage, uttered her verdict on Setsuko.

'Liar. Coward. **Murderer**.'

Then silently fell to Setsuko's blade.

Her master praised her and gave quiet comfort after her first kills. The Shinmei-ryu proclaimed her ready for the responsibilities of a good warrior. She was gifted with the masterpiece Yuunagi as a reward.

Setsuko never used it.

She never picked up a sword again. She could never touch one again; the sword that protects the innocent, the sword banishes evil, the sword purifies the soul.

It did no such thing.

The past still stained her soul and mind. Setsuko could hear Chen speaking but his words seemed far away.

"You would be a wonderful mother, you would give everything to protect our child. You have repented for what has happened. So please Setsuko, think about having the child," his words brought Setsuko back from the past into the present. His large clawed hand gently stroked her scarred cheek with gentle affection.

"You really love children don't you," the human woman commented as she slowly parted from her embrace with the Uzoku.

"They are miracles; gold from thin air, water from dust. An echo of our lives that lasts throughout the ages."

The crow demon stated with serious conviction. Setsuko smiled at him. She felt a bit better.

Chen whispered in his wife's ear.

"There's still plenty of time to think things over about the child. Could you do that for me, at the very least."

Setsuko nodded and smiled ruefully.

"Yes, there's plenty of time. Anyways, I need to go shop for dinner. What are you making tonight?"

"Mapo doufu, zhou and jiang cai. I wrote the ingredients down and put it in your shopping bag."

"I guess, I should get going then."

Chen broke the embrace and smiled, which looked a lot like a frightening sneer of unpleasant things he could do. Setsuko had long since managed to discern his true feelings while in demonic form. Though it had taken an absurd amount of time to do so.

Thoughts still weighed heavily on the Shinmeryu warrior's mind but dinner needed to be purchased. They could talk about her pregnancy more latter.

Zaio Chen Hou; loving Uzoku Demon Crow husband, Sichuan cook, former Imperial Bureaucrat of Tanhua rank, Alchemist, master of Xingyiquan, and other numerous titles and talents that he had acquired over his short 400 years of existence… was troubled.

He kept on forgetting the fecundity of humanity. Demons took decades, sometimes centuries, of trying to have children and treasured them, either as convenient tools or legacies of their existence, and could never understand why humans killed their own for whatever reason.

It never bothered Chen before though. After all, it wasn't as if these creatures were his family. Besides there were plenty more humans who could give birth to replace any of the creatures that got killed.

But this child and this human woman was _**his child and his wife**_. Which made all the difference in the world to him. The demon knew that Setsuko didn't mean to needlessly put him through so much pain but it still upset the hell out of him.

The first time his wife got pregnant, the swordswoman didn't tell him. Worse yet, she had an abortion behind his back.

It was infuriating. He would have traded harsh words with her, if he hadn't noticed how haunted she was by her actions and the damned curse that he had only just then noticed on her during the pregnancy.

A curse from two very angry dead children. The kuei of Hisoga Seiji and his younger sister, Aya haunted her when she was with child. They plagued her with nightmares and uttered curses upon the unborn child to suffer the same fate the hanyou kitsune suffered at Setsuko's hand.

No one, not even the vengeful deluded dead, threatened his family.

Chen banished them… Or at least he tried to banish them, the crow demon was not sure at the time when he tried to send the two to the afterlife if the spell was successful.

Now he could clearly see that it wasn't. The demon opened his mystic third eye and could now sense the ghostly presence of the two in his home and hovering over his wife. Whispering curses and haunting his wife's dreams. The two kuei had taken extra precautions to hide their presence from him than last time but it was clearly not enough.

This would not do.

He, Zaio Chen Hou, would not stand for it.

It was time to take serious actions.

The Uzoku entered his home from the garden and head straight to the 'door'.

On the outside, it seemed like a normal paper sliding door that the Japanese favored in their homes if they could have them.

Naturally his 'door' was nothing like that. He had put great thought into painting the si junzi. The mei, lan, ju and zhu were all expressively drawn in black ink by his hand. Behind the door was the hallways to a magical extra dimensional home he had created.

With a violent slam, he opened the doorway to his highly magical abode. Here the hallways stretched onwards as though infinity itself was compressed into it. An illusion, of course, that hide the doors to his laboratory, library and other rooms he had created over the long years of his life.

The featureless, white plastered walls were disconcerting. They looked all exactly the same, the same nicks, the same texture. There was no variation at all but that was the intention.

Chen remembered trapping a very foolish young mage in his endless hallway illusion once. The fool could not find a way to break the illusion or find a doorway to another room before perishing from thirst. Of course, that foolish mage went insane from the darkness and endlessness of the illusion first.

With sureness born of familiarity and a long existence, Chen walked forth and tapped the walls with his magic to part the true path to his laboratory.

He would need a great deal of space and close access to the required elements of his spell. The home shifted to match his needs, the great storage chamber and study room combined in such a way that it was most convenient. A tiny sliver of his great library was added to the combination in the form a single bookshelf closest the open space he had in mind.

All was ready at last, when he touched the wall to his right and melted through to the other side. A tingly feeling started and quickly passed as Chen shifted in his newly arranged room. It was lit by floating puffs of magic energy that shed shadows in dark corners menacingly. Just the way he liked it and the faint smell of sandalwood incense clung to the air pleasantly.

The Uzoku took stock of the arrangement of the room and thought out how he should perform the calling. The great oak table, ancient and heavy, was in the middle. It bore no nicks or marks despite the obvious age of it and was the main piece of the open space. To the left of the table, about a meter away, was a great many shelves bearing jars, books and strange items like skulls, whispering boxes and such.

Chen grabbed a white silk cloth hanging from the wall and walked over to the table. He saw that the great four legged oak table was in the wrong place and he moved the heavy wood furniture to the north east position of the room with his great strength and was satisfied that it was in properly in kimon. He then spread the pure white silk in the middle of the table before the demon turned his attention to the shelves behind him. He would need some items for the calling he wanted to perform.

An ancient jade inkstone that bled the finest black ink on command and his prized human baby hair ink brush, both carefully preserved by his magic. These were reverently set on the edge of the white silk.

Chen turned to his shelves once and found a scroll, ancient and brimming of magic that might be required at the end of the ceremony. It had the black seal of Court of Hell and burned coldly in his hand. This too was set on the edge of the white cloth and none too soon, for the scroll crackled and rustled as though demanding to be unsealed. The chill from the scroll was noticeable and Chen withdrew his cold hand into the folds of his robes to warm them as soon as he placed the scroll on the table.

The demon now could concentrate on the more mundane elements of the ceremony. He turned to his shelf of various jars. All carefully labeled and many carefully sealed with wax, charms and spells to make sure they stayed inside. Luckily the required materials were benign.

Earth from the grave of a murdered innocent.

Water snatched from those dying of thirst.

A gold coin from an assassin's payment.

His quarry were vengeful, indignant and relentless. The three items were the best things to attract them to him. Then he could maybe begin the hardest part of the ceremony. The bargaining with the two kuei.

The earth was placed on top of the white cloth in a small pile and the water was mixed into it, making it wet and heavy. Then the gold coin was placed on top.

Come, oh vengeful spirits. I call upon thee to resolve thy injustice suffered.

That being said the last element was still needed.

Darkness.

With a wave of his hand and a spell on his lips, the magical floating puffs of light in the room were snuffed as though a great wind passed through the room. Chen's eyes could see through the darkness as though it was nothing and was unhampered by the blackness. In the silent dark he waited and was rewarded soon enough with his patience.

His third eye could see that outside his library's barriers a number of kuei were gathering. They scratched the walls and magic bindings fruitless to enter and issued low groans and wails, knowing that there was a possibility that their unnatural existence could be ended to their satisfaction. Chen concentrated on finding the Hisoga siblings spirits and sensed them the moment they rattled the door of his home violently.

Enter Hisoga Seiji, Hisoga Aya. Let us bargain…

The extra dimensional door to enter his home burst open and Chen could feel his guests enter his abode. The spells inscrolled into the very walls shook and rattled, waiting for the opportunity to strike down the two if they attacked. The Uzoku calmed the spell to allow two ghosts to travel his home unmolested.

Chen knew they had arrived in his room when the darkness deepened to a blackness he had rarely experienced in the mundane world outside. This was a blackness that pierced the mind with unease and dyed the soul with black despair.

"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!" A piercing girl's voice echoed throughout the room.

"You promised me! You promised me! You promised me!" A boy's haunted keen joined the girl's.

"Silence!" Chen ordered sharply. His order was infused with powerful magic that would compel most to obey but kuei were notoriously obsessive and difficult to control. But they would appear now, as they were compelled to take their human form. Though it was doubtful they would become silent.

"Murderer. Murderer. Murderer." A pale white spirit coalescence in the air and took the form of a young girl. Her neck was slashed open wide and extended down to the middle of her chest, stopping where her heart and lungs would be. A good cut and done quickly. There was no fresh blood dripping from the wounds but it looked as though the blood was dry and hard. Her eyes were a pale brown, once it may have shined with the innocence of childhood but no more. Her face was plain but full of vulpine cunning, it was not a mischievous cunning but a hard ruthless sort not found amongst children. Her brown hair was straight but dried blood had hardened parts of it into clumps. She was small for her age, it would be easy to mistaken her for less than ten years of age but Chen's third eye could see the day of her birth and death and true name. This kuei was trying very hard to conceal these three little facts but failed against Chen's experienced mystic third eye.

"You promised me. You promised me. You promised me." The next spirit was more ghastly in comparison. A tall boy began to form, his face would have been pleasant, if not mischievously handsome. That is, if there wasn't a part of his face sliced off. Cheekbone was exposed as well as muscle, as though a sword had shaved off part of the face. He had no hand on his left arm either. There was a ragged ripped stump at the wrist, a poor sword stroke perhaps or an accidentally sawing action as the attacker tried to pull away. There were several sword wounds on his torso, his neck, and arms. All of them fatal but not one a killing blow that would have ended the boy's life quickly. Panic to end to the boy's life must be to blame for the poor sword strokes. Then there were stab wounds in his chest, a few strayed to other parts like over his lungs and stomach. His death must have been painful and bloody, for not a single item of clothing was free of blood. This spirit didn't even bother hiding his true name, date of birth and death from Chen's third eye. This was a careless one, the girl spirit was worrisome in that she obviously was the wiser.

Truly, he was looking upon the Hisoga children as described by his wife. One would never suspect their heritage, they looked entirely human with nary a tuft of unnaturalness in their features. Kitsune took great pride in blending in with humanity, it was not unwarranted. It was little wonder that the Hisoga children were never suspected of more supernatural qualities. Their fine red hair was the only evidence that bespoke of something more.

The sight of them made Chen feel very angry though. So these were the 'things' that haunted his wife. Weak third grade spawn of a equally pathetic Japanese demon who weren't fit to touch the soles of his feet. Oh, they were persistent, he had to admit to that but in the end nothing more than that.

Wrath. Pride. Greed. The three sins most commonly associated with Uzoku. Chen was a fan of all three but right now he favored wrath greatly. His feathers rose on his body, taut with anger and stiff, it seemed as though he had grown larger. It was a pointless exercise, he knew logically that he couldn't rip the two apart physically.

Besides, he had a much more satisfying way of expressing his anger if things didn't go his way.

"Hisoga Seiji, Hisoga Aya, I presume."

The kuei looked upon the one who called them with wariness. It knew their names but they did not know it's name.

"Who the hell are you?" Aya demanded. The voice was cold and sibilant, intuitively realizing that the powerful being before had harmful designs upon them.

"Hmph, how rude," Chen scoffed at the nerve of the young kuei. Surely they realized that as their superior they were supposed to be more deferential to him. It was only to the polite thing to do, not to mention he could destroy the two of them.

"Well? Who are you?" Seiji demanded along with his sister. One moment he was tormenting Setsuko with feral growls and yips in his fox form, then the next he was flying away towards her home. Beckoned with a call he could not resist, as though someone was calling his name and dragged him towards them.

"I am a learned scholar of wealth and taste," Chen declared imperiously.

"Like hell you are, you're just a… a… big black bird!" Seiji stated with conviction.

"I think he's a raven." Aya helpfully supplied her brother with an educated guess.

Okay, now he felt annoyed. Really, to be mistaken for a raven was common but coming from two snot nosed kuei did not make him happy. It also made him roll his eyes in disbelief at how obsessive these particular kuei were with revenge. They couldn't recognize the very demon who had tried to banish them before and spent suspicious amounts of time with their hated target.

"In any case, I wish to bargain with you. I can speedily send you on your way to the cycle of reincarnation without the stain of karma and reunite you with your mother in the afterlife. In exchange I want you to cease your harassment of Sakurazaki Setsuko," Chen began. He waited for the inevitable temper tantrum of the kuei to begin.

"Never, not as long as she draws breath. We'll see that she suffers for what she has done," Aya coolly replied.

"Do that and you will suffer in hell as punishment. Your souls will be stained and it will come back as punishment when you are reborn," Chen reminded them in a clinical voice.

"We know that! It's worth knowing that we can take her with us when she dies. We'll be there to torment her in hell. We'll avenge our mother too, that old bitch, Sakurazaki Haruka is old. It won't be long before she dies too!" Seiji proclaimed. His form was beginning to look vulpine though not enough to distort his humanity.

"Surely your mother would not approve of this…" Chen began but was cut off by Aya.

"Yes she would, she told us so."

This was a problem. His two spirits were not only obsessed but also bond by ties of filial piety. It looked like that negotiations were impossible.

"What would your price be for you to be at peace."

The demon knew the answer already but it was just to make sure that there wasn't a way to banish them without using his precious artifacts.

"We want her punished! For her to suffer. For her to know what despair is. For her to die," the boy declared. His fangs were prominent in his mouth now.

"If you do that for us and send her to Hell, we will be satisfied," Aya added.

"Oh, I see. Well I'm afraid I won't do that," Chen answered calmly.

Aya narrowed her eyes while her brother exploded with rage.

"What are you to that bitch! I'll kill her, I'll kill her, I'll kill her," Seiji repeated in his boyish voice with spite. It was the voice of the obsessed, disturbing in it's clarity of grim purpose.

"I am her husband, and she, my wife," Chen declared with a deadly quiet voice.

The two kuei stared at Chen with their vengeful eyes. This demon was important to Sakurazaki Setsuko, a fact that boggled their mind. How could the Shinmeiryu favor this demon to the point of marrying him yet kill they who were half-human. The thought that time could change Setsuko or that she could feel regret for what she did was blind to them. The knowledge of this seeming hypocrisy burned and festered in their hearts instead.

"We'll curse you too! Haunt your dreams, tear your hopes to nothingness!" Seiji hissed and floated closer to Chen. The boy struck the demon with his incorporeal hands but it did little to the Uzoku but chill him a bit. It would have been a deadly attack to a human, the freezing touch of a vengeful kuei, but it did little to someone who was suffused with magic and a more primordial existence that older than humanity itself.

Truth be told, Chen was only slightly more concerned about the younger of the kuei's. Aya's eyes turned to red, like hot coals in a fire and burned with hatred. From that fiery gaze, a soft curse was being woven from her lips and tried to taint the Uzoku.

It was a laughable attempt, one that made the Uzoku incredulous that he had feared it. With a wave of his claw, Chen cut through the curse as though it was nothing, destroying the delicate links that tried to surround him and rained to the ground. His feathers cast off the sundered curse that sought to pierce his flesh with contemptuous ease.

"You will never leave my wife or child alone," Chen asked once more, to be sure that he was not wrong in his assumption.

"Never!" Seiji snarled. The boy's handsome face morphed into a crazed fox's face, teeth sharp and eyes wild. Chen was unmoved by the pitiful display of aggression and simply sighed.

"I see…" With that he reached into his cheongsam and withdrew from it's depths a simple Gudi. He placed the flute to his beak and blew a clear note of tremendous power.

The air grew still and the Hisoga siblings heard the soft piping music of a flute but were baffled. The demon before them had only blown a single note and was not visibly playing the flute.

Yet they could hear the comforting sound of a flute very close by.

Hisoga Aya looked about the room and finally saw the source of the music. Above them a pale yellow tadpole-like spirit with half lidded eyes was playing away on two flutes, one in each hand. It was alone and floated sedately, Aya knew what it was. She and her brother had spent the last ten years avoiding this spirit.

The Soul Piper, the Tatarimokke.

The guide who soothed and ushered the souls' of children to the afterlife. If those souls' were not soothed by the gentle piping music and play, then it's blues eyes opened fully and became blood red.

And dragged those childrens' soul to hell,

There was no way to hide from the spirit now that it had discovered the Hisoga siblings had at long last been found.

Seiji was agape with horror. His eyes wide and his mouth slack, but that only lasted a moment.

"I won't let it end this way! I will never forgive her! NEVER!" Seiji screamed and launched himself at the Tatarimokke with rage. His fox like face snarled and his jaws snapped savagely as he tried to rend the Tatarimokke with his fangs.

Seiji's fangs sank in to the pale spirit stuff of the Tatarimokke and tore it to pieces but as soon as a piece detached from the Tatarimokke, it reattached itself.

Two pieces, one piece. Three pieces, one piece. Four pieces, one piece.

It went on and on. It was a pointless attack. All the while, the two flutes piped away and the eyes of the Tatarimokke grew wider as though being shaken from sleep slowly.

The music grew cheerful, more peaceful, more energetic to tempt the two souls of the children to consider the merits of heaven and eventual rebirth.

Seiji would have none of it. For all of his ethereal existence as a kuei, he had thought only of revenge and of the hurtful betrayal at Setsuko's hand. Of seeing Setsuko kill his sister. Seeing his beautiful kind mother hunted like a beast. His shattered father whose memories were erased. Of a world that denied that he and his sister had ever existed. A world that refused to let him and his sister exist.

They would never forgive. They would have their justice. They would have their existence acknowledged if only by the hateful object of their revenge.

Such malice, such hatred, such deep and abiding anger.

The Tatarimokke opened it's blues eyes fully and it's eyes turned a ghastly red. The piping music of it's flutes became a mournful wail and condemning trill.

Then it became a sound that could only be described as hellish.

The floor of the room rented metaphysically, opening the pathway to hell through the planes of magic and existence. Chains, black from fire and bloodied by the punished darted forth and bond itself around Seiji's frantic form.

Realizing what was happening, Seiji screamed in horror and tried to find a way to save himself.

"I won't go! You can't make me go! I don't want to go! Why am I being punished! It's all her fault! Punish her! This isn't right! This isn't right!"

His fox like face, melted away to reveal his sobbing scarred human one. His eyes wide with horror and tears mixed into his open wounds.

Despite all the struggles and protests, screams and curses, the chains of hell dragged Hisoga Seiji to hell.

No one could hear anything else, save the Tatarimokke's flutes. No one could see anything but the darkness and the great rented gateway to hell that existed on in the mystic world of spirits.

At last, Hisoga Aya cut through the piping flutes music. A new voice added the medley of damnation.

"No, no, no… I'm afraid." The frightened voice of Aya trembled through the darkness. The kuei did not move, running was pointless. Begging for forgiveness, making excuses was likewise pointless.

"I know," was the response from the great crow demon.

Chen smiled cruelly, a sight as frightening as the Tatarimokke fully opening it's eyes. The Soul Piper continued it's hellish tune of hate and the chains of hell snaked up once more and wrapped itself around Aya's ghostly form.

Aya did not scream in terror like her brother or struggle futilely against them. Her eyes were rigid and focused on Chen, they shone with hatred. A hatred that would have brought lesser demon's to their knees with fear.

It was quite amusing to the Uzoku demon.

"I swear I will return and haunt your family. All who hold the blood of that woman and yours will be cursed by me!" Aya whispered as she let the chains from hell drag her down.

"Well now, I can't have that. So here's a parting gift from me, a prewritten judgment from Yanluo. You really should be quite honored, it's quite hard to get one of these things," Chen announced and brandished his already wetted brush. Aya eyes widened in horror as she felt the chains that wrapped around her drag her to a far different place than where her brother had been taken to. Chen wrote in Aya's true name on the scroll with a flourish.

"The 5th Imperial Court of Hell, hereby proclaims judgment upon the guilty soul Arashi no Kataki, Chuusu na Hisoga Aya. The soul is to be punished by being forever prevented from seeking vengeance," Chen read out loud to enlighten the hateful spirit.

The kuei seemed shocked as she felt the poisonous inked judgment brand her soul and bind it.

"Either alive or dead, by proxy or by the soul's hand, magic, etcetera, etcetera. Please do understand, that I'm making a very brief summary of all the conditions that are in this document. If there's one thing you can appreciate about Yanluo's judgments, it's that the best human lawyers would take centuries to find a loophole in them."

Chen carefully rolled up the scroll and let it crumble in his hand to dust. The judgment had been heard and executed.

Aya screamed in rage and frustration at last. The child ghost transformed into a raging demon, it looked vaguely like a three tailed kitsune but it was grossly misshapen. Flesh was poorly sculpted and drooped downwards as though an artisan left clay fall victim to the pull of gravity. The body exposed bone and muscle, fur was matted and dirty but the eyes were human and crazed.

Ziao Chen Hou, watched impassively at the young girl's enraged struggles. The Tatarimokke's wailing flute grew ever louder and the chains of hell bound her ever tighter.

"_**You**_! _**YOU**_!" Aya could not find the words to describe her rage, her hatred, her absolute fear.

"Fear not… Just as you shall never forget me or my wife and children from my flesh. I and Setsuko will remember you both even if the world does not."

Those words scarcely damped Aya's rage.

"And besides, young one, my wife shall forever be haunted by her conscience. Truly, you curse her still."

Those words, though it paled to the revenge that Aya wanted to inflict, pleased her. A morsel of the greater meal denied but better than nothing at all.

The cruel smile on Hisoga Aya's face was the last thing that Chen saw when the chains dragged the kuei away. The last shrill note of the Tatarimokke closed the rent in the floor as though it had never existed before. Just as it had disappeared the Tatarimokke eye's narrowed and closed. It now looked like a peaceful sleepy tadpole and floated in the air as though nothing had happened. The music it played cheery and bright, as it ambled off to find children to comfort and guide.

Soon Chen was alone in his inter dimensional home. The damp earth and gold coin that rested on top of the white silk that once adorned his table was gone. Payment for the summoning had been taken. All that was left was the inkstone and ink brush.

Chen felt tired. He tidied up his laboratory and headed straight for his anchored home in Kyoto. At the very door of the doorway back into the mundane, he paused and willed himself to polymorph into his human form.

Feathers gave way to human skin and full head of black glossy human hair. Beak gave way to a human mouth and nose. Claws gave way to soft human hands and feet. His height shrank to a more human one. Til at last, none could see that he even had a shade of the demonic. His cheongsam even reshaped itself to better fit the new form and gave the impression of a sleek young human in his late twenties.

His wife was right. He shouldn't tempt the fates and gods just because he felt more comfortable in his demon form. His home was not a invincible castle that could protect his family from the hostile outside world. His magic will never be enough to hide what he truly was either.

Even his human form maybe stripped away to reveal what he truly was in the future.

As it had for the Hisoga family.

For now, all he could do was take precautions.

Chen slid the door open and entered back to his Kyoto home. Roughly half an hour had passed since his wife left.

He headed for the kitchen to prepare for dinner.

Soon enough Setsuko returned home from grocery shopping. The sky was still bright and hot despite the hour. The humid heat of the ancient city of Kyoto made her sweat but she was used to it. Her home was rarely cooled with magic despite offers from Chen, being a Shinmeiryu sword saint demanded enduring discomfort for training.

Her shopping trip was the usual. The situation had not changed, yet Setsuko felt better since telling Chen her pregnancy, though she wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't relief from telling him, truth be told she felt worse after telling him about her pregnancy.

Perhaps because it was a beautiful day. Or because the tofu had been on sale for cheap in a sale at Morita's in the shopping street. Or because she managed to pet the local cat, Ami for a little while.

No, there was something distinctly different today.

Setsuko just wasn't very sure what or why.

She just felt a bit better. Though not by much.

Her hand unconsciously rubbed her stomach, knowing that a child was growing inside of her. She tried not think about it, but her mind swirled with thoughts.

Was it a girl or boy? When would it start showing that she was pregnant? Will the Shinmeiryu find out about her pregnancy? Should she start training less? More? What should she eat? Was the child in her a monster?

Setsuko stopped outside her home and shut her eyes.

A monster? There were no monsters here but those created by their own hands. This child in her was no monster and would never be a monster in her eyes.

The sword saint shook herself out of her thoughts and stared at her home. It was time to come back in and see to dinner.

Sliding the door of her traditional Japanese home and removed her shoes, then made her way straight to the kitchen. She could hear the familiar sound of plates being readied there. As soon as she entered she was surprised to see Chen was in his human form. A rather uncommon thing in their home, his black eyes were sharp as usual. The sheer blackness of his hair was finer than most women and tied neatly in a small pony tail. His face was masculine as they came, cut finely and sharply, and caused more than one female acquaintance to look a bit too closely at him to Setsuko's liking. Especially his body, it was the perfect combination of toned muscle that she had ever seen, Setsuko was very grateful that Chen was somewhat vain about his human form. He wouldn't stand for it to look aesthetically unpleasing, he could possibly tolerate being a bit on the plain side perhaps but never unpleasing.

Her face started to turn a bit red from other thoughts but quickly pitched them out of her imagination before Chen noticed and made fun of her.

"Why are you in human form?" Setsuko asked.

"Fan service for the wife. Would you also like me to cook while wearing only an apron?" Chen asked back.

"Hm… I would prefer something a bit more kinky like tying you up or dressing you up in a high school boy's uniform."

There was once a time Setsuko would have reddened and sputtered with embarrassment at his offer. Things had changed. Setsuko had changed with passing of time.

Chen looked her with his black eyes and saw a woman that stirred his oftentimes conflicting feelings of love and regret.

Love that he could never put into words, love that he would never trade away for power or wealth. Regret for he was sure that he would never find such a feeling again in his long existence to come, regret that he feared so greatly of revealing all that he was to her because it would surely mean to lose her.

None of this Setsuko could divine but she noted the intensity of his gaze.

"Is something strange on my face?" Setsuko asked as she set down the groceries on the kitchen table.

"No, I was just thinking to myself, the things I do for my family."

With that Chen tied his apron on and fired up the gas stove top. Now was for love and not regret. Now it was time for dinner with his wife and to talk about children.

The future would come at it's own pace.


	2. September

September 12, 1988.

News came from the West.

News came from the East.

News came from the North.

News came from the South.

Their common thread was the whispers of secret battles and rumblings of a war of Magi.

Or it was just paranoia. No one wanted a war that could potentially destroy the world; all the magic nations were desperate to avoid it. But then talk of nuclear annihilation had been going on for the last thirty years in the mundane world, and if nuclear annihilation hadn't happened now, then Chen was sure a magic war of annihilation wouldn't happen either.

But it didn't change the fact there had been quite a bit of destruction over the last few years.

The Rostram School of Magic Arts in Iran was in ruins as was the ancient Alf Deen Madrassa in Iraq. Tales of looting and misery in Mesopotamia and Persia buzzed in the ears of many a demon and magus. Aswad Marid Emir Abdiel was rumored to be most pleased, seizing hundreds of unfortunate humans into slavery.

Algeria was restive. Tales of Algerian Magus quietly rebelling against the government were being told. Turkish Magus were assisting despite a ban from the Istanbul Magic Association.

Russian demons were being summoned in large numbers to Poland, Estonia and Czechoslovakia. Powerful demons like Khitaka and Koshchei, a disturbing bit of news if true. If Chen was human, he certainly did not want to be in Eastern Europe this time of year.

The Americas was boring as usual. An election was going on in the US. Random news of a major lacrosse tournament of Inuit spirits against Cherokee spirits.

China, blessed homeland, was restive… again… No evidence that there was going to be a major, in the magical sense. It seems that his homeland was lurching to another crisis. There were glimmers of a great new age on the horizon or another age of misery. His homeland had become disturbingly bipolar in the last two centuries, swinging from stability to the other end of the pendulum, utter chaos.

He also made a mental note to prepare a teleport spell if the upheaval in his homeland triggered another collapse in society. There were a number of items he had coveted for the last twenty years. His first list was not magical, two Song dynasty stoneware jug, a bronze Shang dynasty ritual bell, three fine wooden statues of the Bodhisattva from the Yuan dynasty, a genuine copy of Liaozhai Zhiyi, dozens of masterwork Ming paintings, thirty calligraphy scrolls and… oh hell, there were hundreds of things he wanted to have!

And to think, that was only the non-magical relics list he had written up!

The Uzoku stopped himself as he felt his greed runaway with him for a moment. The final hundred years of the Qing dynasty had spoiled him silly, he remembered running around disguised and looting hundreds of homes during those times. Then there was the wars and the Great Cultural Revolution! What heady and miserable times those were! Evil English merchants and their opium, the Japanese and humiliating the superior Chinese, and all those mind boggling Imperial intrigues! The Red Guards and their talk of the future and destruction of the past! Such naked abandon for power, such misguided ideals for a perfect society, such self-righteous fury against the bourgeois and foreigners. Being the demon that he was, he shed tears of supernatural joy as the swirling emotions of China soaked into his soul.

It was like a giddy high that lasted a hundred years; he remembered thousands of demons becoming drunk on the emotions of that time. Elder demons compared it to the years before the Yuan Dynasty, when Kublai Khan was still roving the Middle Kingdom, in terms of the level of misery and bloodshed they had seen.

Chen would have liked to have argued with the Great Elders that those particular one hundred years were probably a lot bloodier and more miserable than anything they had seen, but the young should never challenge his Elders.

It was unseemly and usually suicidal.

Mostly suicidal.

Yet how did Chen know of these things? It was not as if he could pick up a newspaper and read of it.

It was very simple really.

Crows.

His brother and sister crows and a few raven cousins. Carrying on their wings news of the outside world and beyond. Their beady eyes and ready minds heard much and spread it to others ears for a price.

So there was much sweet bread being passed around and bai jiu being drunk by all in Nishikyo Public Park. It was mid day, there were no children about or gossipy housewives or salary men, all were going about their daily lives. The Uzoku was in his human form so that no one realized he was a demon. For an extra precaution he blanketed the park with a subtle illusion so that people passing by didn't see drunken birds falling over and squawking around him for more sweet bread and bai jiu.

The September air still clung to the muggy remnants of August. The grass and trees were still green, full of life despite fast approaching death of autumn.

Usually, he would not bother spending so much time gossiping with the crows and ravens but he had gotten into a small fight with Setsuko today. So it was out the house for him for the day at least.

It was because of the new table in his kitchen.

His wife insisted on placing the table where it was most useful but crudely disrupted flow of chi in his kitchen. He, on the other hand, insisted on putting the table in the most pleasing and most harmonious way possible, though it was a trifle bit inconvenient when he was cooking. But it offended his Fang Shih sensibilities, disrupting the flow of chi by damming it up with the table.

Setsuko with her limited abilities understood that it did disrupt the flow of chi but moved to where it was most useful anyways; he moved it back where it pleasing to his senses and chi flowed about his kitchen freely.

After nearly a month of this unending battle of shifting the said table, the sword saint finally snapped at him in annoyance.

He responded back with undue mockery.

The end result was a small fight between a married couple.

Chen wasn't sure if he appreciated the absurd domesticity of it all.

He was a demon… Demons don't get browbeaten by pregnant demon slaying woman and get tossed out of their home.

Yet here he was.

Spirits and Gods above he was bored.

He had practiced Yingzhaoquan and Xingyiquan for the last two hours. He idly practiced a western spell he received from Albireo called Sagitta Magica and whipped around the park as an exercise in control. He crafted an earthen table and summoned a few creatures to bind to future service and renewed a few contracts as though he was holding court in the public park.

Seals pressed into the necessary documents. Payment and haggling of prices. Browbeating servants and slaves so they did not stray or dare to think of betraying him.

Tedious and boring, but something to preoccupy him for a few hours. Soon even that was completed.

All the while, the crows and ravens began to whisper amongst themselves as the sweetbread and bai jiu started to run low. The last crumbs and drops staining their beaks were gone leaving their minds to be clouded with vapors of idle thoughts and mischief to be had.

"Oh, why does our great Brother spend so much time in this paltry court? Does the lord not have his own great house?" The great black crow with a blind right eye whispered to the ratty raven on his left. They knew that Chen could hear them but it simply wasn't polite to say things involving their good host out loud and in public. Especially things that seemed touchy, their great Brother seemed to be little upset as he went about his business though he had tried to bury it under as a gracious host.

"Aye, and a pretty human wife to boot. Mayhap a little time away from the joys of marriage?" The raven whispered back. Her beady eyes studiously avoiding looking at their esteemed host too closely. It was known that Chen had a human wife but very few had been formally introduced to her yet.

"Oh hoh? I wonder if our great Brother has something important to announce to us on this fine day. I can't wait until the end of this court," the half blind crow whispered back. The murder and conspiracy began to quiet gossip, it swept through the park like leaves swirling in the autumn wind. The rustling of quiet words being exchanged by all, scarce disturbed the air.

Chen gritted his teeth in annoyance. He knew that the gossip being spoken here would be spread throughout the world to any Uzoku who invited guests to form a court. The demon fumed as he remembered precisely why he avoided hosting these sorts of meetings.

The last time there was a rumor about him acquiring a taste in dressing in human women's clothing. Damn Albeiro and his costume collection; maids, mikos, nuns, cat ears and swimming suits are not sexy.

"Why are we whispering? Wife? Human? I thought he was done with marriage after what had happened to Ye Ming Zhu? Why not just go and ask him?" A young brazen voice queried. The owner, a young stupid crow who had no idea what all the whispering was all about had just broke an unwritten rule.

The entire murder and conspiracy of crows and ravens fell silent at the egregious breach of courtesy. All eyes fell upon the young crow who dared to speak aloud their desire in such an rude way. There was now no way their esteemed Brother could possibly ignore the gossip involving him anymore. The young crow realized his mistake and shrank from the glares.

Chen said nothing as he silently finished the contract he was renewing with the earth spirit, Hei Chen. The murder and conspiracy was unnaturally still and silent as they politely waited for the ink brush to be stilled.

At last the great brush was stilled. And the owner of the brush looked upon avians before him in silence.

"Who wishes to ask me a question? Was it you old Guan?" A gentle smile, with nary a hint of the hidden dagger ire it seemed, was directed at the half blind crow.

"Not I, oh great Brother. Fifty years of great service to all my great Brothers and Sisters would not move me ask any questions about you." The half blind crow bowed low with his wings spread. Chen could smell the fear; he had sponsored Guan to the next stage of existence along with several others. In another fifty years, Guan would be ready to take a place as an Uzoku. As long as Guan did not anger or fail in services to his sponsors this was guaranteed by his quick wit and discretion.

"I see, then was it you cousin Shu?" The Uzoku's deceptively mild gaze fell upon the ratty raven.

"Oh no, I am not foolish enough to talk behind the back our most charitable host," Shu the raven uttered with the utmost false worshipfulness. Chen's lips pressed into a thin line, Shu was the most untrustworthy piece of flesh and feathers in the entire lot. But the Uzoku decided to ignore the she-raven, Chen heard everything of course but appearances were important. As long as they pretended to be discrete, he would pretend not to hear them. It was a subtle way of informing the host on what to speak to his guests before dismissing his court or how his guests were regarding him.

Clearly no one had taught the foolish young crow who had spoken out.

For this, Chen was supremely thankful. He wouldn't have to explain anything to his guests because the idiot had so egregiously breached the rules to honor the host and turn back on obvious gossip. Such a thing should be rewarded but not in a very obvious way.

"Then, who was it? Come now, I know my ears are not failing me yet."

The silence of stretched into uncomfortable seconds. The crows and ravens began to subtly move away from the foolish young crow who had spoken aloud their gossip.

Realizing that he stood alone, the young crow decided throwing himself before his great Brother was the wisest course of action to take.

"It was I, oh great Brother, forgive this young foolish one. I meant not to pry, I was…"

Chen raised his hand to silence the young crow. Its beak shut and all listened intently.

"What is your name, young one," the Uzoku asked leaning towards the panicky crow.

"Forgive this stupid one, great Brother! I didn't mean to…" The crow squawked and babbled.

Another hand was raised to silence him.

"Calm thyself young one. I ask nothing but your name," the Uzoku continued with his even voice.

"This slow one has no name, I am but a speck of dust in your noble presence," the young crow continued to grovel.

"So you would not protest if I decide to honor you with a most appropriate name then?"

"I have no objections, I would be grateful for a name," the young crow continued to kowtow to the ground, not daring raise his eyes.

Inside the young crow's mind, he wept silently in despair. He imagined the humiliating name that his great Brother was about to inflict upon him. The young crow wondered if it would be something as embarrassing as Dong, idiot, or worse.

"Very well young one, I dub thee Gu. Is there anyone here who objects?"

Silence reigned and all could see the fluid strokes of Chen's brush and the character 'drum' being written out.

It wasn't a bad name, but it advertised the type of crow he was. Loud and crass, but honest.

"And now my brothers and sisters, I declare this court adjourned."

The murder and conspiracy quietly cursed at the dismissal. No longer could they pry and coax new information out their host now. It was time to take flight and go on to other things.

"Congratulations cousin Gu, may you honor your name with an even louder voice next time we meet," Shu remarked sarcastically. The she-raven joined her conspiracy to fly to the north.

Gu made no comment as ravens left, the crows were another matter. They were waiting for Guan to make his judgment if the young crow should be allowed to remain in the murder. Most were annoyed at him.

"What are you waiting for Gu, we're leaving," the one eyed crow announced at last. He signed tiredly, but he was willing to forgive a mistake even if others were not. Gu would learn with time, if not then he shall die from the beaks and claws of his brethren. Guan took to the air with a beat of his wings, and the murder followed him.

Gu released the breath he was holding and followed after them. He took a quick look back to see how his host was.

Chen was impassive, sitting at the bench straight and imperious, until all his guests left. The table of earth he had sculpted from the brown earth had sunken back to the ground as thought it had never existed in the first place.

With that one last look, the newly named crow beat his wings to after his brethren.

The Uzoku let go a breath he had been holding and relaxed from his rigid sitting position. It was time to go home and see if his wife was still in a foul mood. If he was lucky, she wouldn't be home and then he could make sure that the table was in the right place forever.

As luck would have it Sakurazaki Setsuko was out of the house and visiting the local doctor for a check up and to finally find out the gender of her baby with a sonograph. It turned out to be a pointless the child was turned in such way in the womb that it was not easy to tell the gender anyway. She was nervous going out and about in the neighborhood as she was now.

It was now, rather obvious she was pregnant. There was just no way of hiding it anymore and the neighborhood housewives where she lived was twittering about it. Actually, it turned out that most had guessed when the sword saint was, in the third month of pregnancy that she was with child. The obvious swell of her stomach only confirmed their suspicions.

Setsuko had received celebratory fish from the fish monger, fruits and vegetables from the grocer and drinks from the neighborhood. It was embarrassing, they were all very concerned with her health and were freely giving advice (and sometimes, horror stories) of pregnancy and how to raise children. The neighbourhood women were all very happy for her and spoke to her as though she was one of them now which had never happened before. Setsuko avoided them because their tendency of gossiping about everything and everyone, but now she was stuck in their little group of housewife day to day events. Now she was in the middle of them during shopping and found herself being forced to interact with them in ways that she had never imagined. It was a nice change from the isolation but…

That being said, the sword saint felt out of depth with them. They respected her that much was true, the entire neighbourhood did, though they didn't quite understand what she did; they seemed to sense that it was important. In Kyoto a number of non-magical folk accepted that there were 'things' out there that they didn't understand and wished them harm. They also somewhat understood that Setsuko was one of their protectors, from what they did not know and, hopefully, they would never know. So, as though Setsuko was a samurai of old, they honored her in their own way.

Mainly by giving her discounts at the stores, never inquiring too deeply into her private life or even talking to her.

With her pregnancy, this all changed. The community regarded it as the end of her long years of a warrior and the beginning as a mother and housewife. As a normal woman about to raise a normal family in a normal world.

While rather touched by their concern, the Shinmeiryu warrior couldn't help but resent their assumption of her 'retirement' and 'normality'. Though traditionally Shinmeiryu warriors did often retire after marriage, it never meant that they were free from all the responsibilities that came with being a demon slayer and protector. It merely meant that their duties were downgraded to teaching and the occasional slaying in their designated community. Even then, there was a chance that they would return to their duty after giving birth.

Setsuko was also not very prepared to deal with their curiosity about Chen either. Many noted the oddity of his habits and lack of employment or the fact that both of them retained their surnames separately. All the myriad little things that Setsuko realized they needed to somehow cover up or correct if they were to hide the fact that Chen was not quite human from everyone.

Hell, they weren't even officially married. While Chen had taken care to make a false paper trail stating he was Chen Hou Zaio, a Chinese resident of Japan and so forth, it didn't change the fact that he did not have a bank account, drivers license or any other little details that would describe a normal human life.

Setsuko had to engage in some very creative fiction to pull the wool over the eyes of the ever sharp ears and eyes of the Nishikyo housewives. Those women seemed to be able to smell a juicy story a mile away, and they were very persistent. Setsuko had never had to think of lies up before until then. Some of her claims weren't too much of a stretch of the imagination.

He's a scholar of Chinese art and history (actually he pillages artifacts occasionally and keeps it in a mystic storeroom like a miser hoarding gold).

We use my bank account. I simply put his wages in there and give him a little something when he wants to go out and about in town (actually last time I checked he had piles of ancient gold coins, gems and other treasures that he occasionally sells while disguised).

And so on, and so forth.

The sword saint was not looking forward to explaining her pregnancy to the Shinmeiryu and her family either. Let alone explaining Chen and the fact they had been living in sin for the last four years. Most of her family were unaware she was living with Chen, let alone in love with him or anything of the sort.

She could only hope her mother and father didn't die from a heart attack when she visited them as their pregnant unmarried daughter. What was she going to say to her grandparents, aunts and uncles? Oh god, and then there were her cousins and younger sister to deal with.

Setsuko's head spun as she tried to imagine the hassle of it all. First and foremost though, she had to go and convince Chen to get a marriage license at city hall. There was no way in hell she was going to go to her relatives and telling them she was unmarried; it would be far too dangerous.

For Chen that is, she was sure her entire family would pull out their blades upon learning that he didn't take responsibility by marrying a Sakurazaki. The idea of her husband pinned to the family dojo's floor with a variety of swords, spears and halberds was not pleasant.

But she didn't want to imagine what would happen if anyone of her family discovered that Chen was a demon, there would be lots of blood. And Setsuko wasn't quite sure if it would only just be Chen's, she was sure that if that happened then she would protect him. Even if it meant going against her own family and it terrified her. She tried not to think of it but memories of Arashi no Yome's fate and that of her children put a chill down her spine. She would not let that happen to her child, never.

Yet that did not change the basic problems facing them now, Zaio Chen Hou, the fake human scholar and husband, was far too removed from normal human society. He did not participate in human affairs; Setsuko was always the one who went to the neighbourhood meetings and cleanings. Chen had probably never been to something as mundane as a shopping mall or driven a car in his life either. It raised the suspicion of too many people, another thing that she needed to talk to him about.

Setsuko never imagined there would be so many fine details needed for a demon to live in secret in human society. A plausible way to make a living without arousing suspicion, an identity, false records of prior history, and so forth that Setsuko could only assume that Chen had faked most of them somehow. Then there were the more subtle things like knowing your neighbours, being up to date with some current news and events, an entire fake history that wasn't too strange to human ears and being able to relate with non-magic using people.

The sword saint knew that it would be impossible for Chen to be able to do all of it without screwing up his cover.

It was these thoughts and more that plagued Setsuko as she walked home. Never had she quite realized how difficult it was to create an entire life out of lies and live it out without trouble. No wonder so many demons didn't bother with long term human disguises and identities, how could they know about the little things of humanity they have no idea about. How could they live in a world that demanded unchanging identities that terminated in a blink of an eye to their long life spans or regular interaction with humans whom they thought were no better than bugs? The fact that Chen had actually created a false identity in Japan for himself was astounding in itself.

"You know, I hope you learn to appreciate the trouble we're going through to have you," Setsuko whispered as she placed one of her hands on her growing stomach. She was going to have this child, she decided after three weeks of hard thinking and quiet meditation. Chen was deathly silent during that time and Setsuko often caught him looking at her in anticipation of her decision. But he never said a word for or against having children the entire time.

But with a simple "I'm going to have the baby", he smiled with pure happiness. He scurried about the house, excitedly going in and out of his dimensional domain with this and that and pasting wards, hanging up scrolls and giving offerings to spirits for safe birth. She was still in the middle of her pregnancy with no idea if it was a girl or a boy, and here was Chen running about writing letters to his older children that a new little brother or sister was about to come into the world.

Setsuko thought it was women who were supposed to be rushing about doing things for the baby's arrivals. By the end of the week, Chen had cleaned up a room and set up everything needed for the child. He agonized about where to put the cradle, where to place the wards to protect the baby, what sort of things to cook for her and so on. Actually, she found it rather annoying; the Uzoku wasn't exactly good to respecting her more modern and definitely Japanese sensibilities. The cradle needed to go; it was made of cherry hardwood and ridiculously expensive as it was anachronistic, perhaps if their house was Chinese style and over a hundred years old it would look good in it but it was wrecking havoc on the tatami floor with its weight.

These thoughts and more plagued the mighty Sakurazaki "Kaminari" Setsuko as she walked home.

The house was quiet when Chen returned home. He checked the charms and protection spells as he entered to make sure that nothing and no one had breached it just in case as well. The Uzoku had arrived home early to discover that Setsuko was out. It was her turn to cook dinner tonight; he hoped that despite her anger she was bringing home some raw meat for him to eat. His stomach was getting upset from all the cooked meat he was eating lately, he needed some red bloody fresh meat or else he was going to get sick.

On that thought, the demon headed towards to his kitchen to see if there was any leftover raw meat to chew on. A light snack never hurt, but all thoughts of savouring the tangy bloody meat left his mind as soon as he went in.

The table of his marital discord was once again in the 'wrong' place. An abundance of yang was gathering in the western corner since the table was blocking its exit to the hallway and was quite frankly irritating Chen. There wasn't enough yin, he had pondered long and hard before to even out the yang with yin without making it inconvenient but the most obvious and simple solution was always the same. The table was best placed close to the stove, there was simply no other place.

The crow demon rolled his eyes and attempted to move the table back to where it needed to be for harmony.

And discovered it did not move an inch.

He strained more until he felt the wood of the table threaten to break.

The table still hadn't moved.

Chen immediately opened his mystic third eye to look about the kitchen. The table, to his shock, was not enchanted. It was stuck but he couldn't begin to imagine why.

He just couldn't see any magic that would root the damn thing to the floor. So just how did Setsuko do it?

He questioned the spirits of wood; they claimed they were not assisting his wife. He went to his laboratory and gathered spell components and ancient unguents to assist his task. He cast various spells that undid enchantments, illusions; anything that would help the table stuck in its place and was rewarded with failure. He used physical force a few times to see if the table would budge but instead felt the wood creak under the pressure.

Chen was starting to get angry.

He opened the book of the Old Ones and called upon Nyarlathotep as described by the impeccable scholar H.P. Lovecraft for advice. Yes, yes he knew the 'do not call up what ye cannot put down' but he was smart enough and powerful enough to do that calling up and putting down. It didn't work, a pity, he was rather curious about these so called Great Old Ones and their odd names Cthulhu, Hastur and so on. In any case, he received no information to his predicament.

He released the essence of the three thousand year ginseng he had. Nothing, it simply rolled about the floor inert as it tried to find magical sustenance. It was starting to get rather annoyed and he could hear the sibilant squeaks from the ancient thing complaining the lack of rich soil and magic to feed upon.

The Uzoku was getting humiliated by a petty human trick of some sort. It involved no spirits, no magic, and no visible contraption to bolt it down.

So what was it?!

Zaio Chen Hou was so engrossed in solving this little mystery he did not hear Setsuko come home and enter the kitchen.

"What the hell are you doing!?"

Setsuko was aghast at what had happened to the kitchen. She wasn't quite sure what to think at the sight of Chen on his knees summoning household spirits and casting a plethora of spells she had never seen before.

Then there was the amount of junk scattered about the entire floor and countertops. The sword saint saw oddly colored vials, magic circles with strange words, tomes written in what looked like blood, scatterings of seeds and incense, a shapeless blob of ginger clinging to the floor eating away at anything vaguely magical and other bizarre possessions that could only have come from Chen's other dimensional laboratory.

Then Setsuko watched her husband rise to straighten his back and raise an imperious dignified aura. It would be quite impressive if his black cheongsam did not bear the obvious marks of being set on fire at some time and oddly colored neon blue and green stains on it.

"I was moving the table."

He said it as if it was the utmost importance. His grave voice opined as though it was an almost divinely ordained task.

"That's all!?" Setsuko was torn between horror at the cleanup to come and laughing her head off at Chen's dogged determination to move the humble piece of furniture.

"In the name of the honorable ancestors, woman! This is of great importance to me! What trickery did you use? Why won't it move! Tell me!" Zaio Chen Hou was dignified enough not to whine too badly in front of his wife. At least he hoped so.

"Now I'm tempted not to tell you," the swordswoman smirked at the look of pure frustration on her Chen's face. It was incredibly rare to see him in such a state.

"Setsuko!" A pronounced twitch appeared on Chen's human brow. The overabundance of yang in the kitchen combined with the frustration of not figuring out the petty human trickery causing it left the crow demon with very little patience. The sword saint could see it quite clearly and she couldn't help but feel amused.

There was also an opportunity here, if Setsuko could play her cards right.

"All right, all right. I'll tell you but you have to do something for me after."

There was a gleam in Setsuko's eyes that made Chen cautious. The demon's dear wife was up to something and he was damn sure it wasn't something he was willing to agree to.

"And pray tell what would that be?"

"You have to wear a suit of some sort for an entire week… of my choice, and each day it's a different type."

On the surface it was a simple request. But for an extremely prideful Chinese demon, the idea of wearing the clothing of barbarian Westerners was probably not the greatest idea.

Chen twitched.

"Se-tsu-ko…" His voice seethed, clearly enunciating the swordswoman's name to show he didn't like her offer at all but he knew that wife wasn't easily scared by his temper.

"Oh come on, I always dress up in a variety costumes when you ask. I mean, how many school girl uniforms have you borrowed from Albeiro already?"

"Pfft, you like wearing them. Don't go and deny it," Chen scoffed. Setsuko blushed and gritted her teeth.

"That's beside the point; it gets kinda boring seeing you only wearing Chinese style clothing. I mean, give some fan service for your wife and wear something she wants to see."

"Does wearing absolutely no clothing count?"

"Chen!"

The Uzoku couldn't help but smirk at the red blush staining the Shinmeiryu woman's cheeks.

"Look just agree with the deal, okay?" Setsuko barked with embarrassment.

"Oh fine then. I vow to please my wife in our marital duties by turning her on with exotic clothing if she tells me the secret of the unmoving table."

Seeing that the Uzoku had pledged his word at last, the Shinmeiryu knew that he would not break it. That didn't change the fact she wished her husband could have phrased the vow in an entirely different way. Setsuko reached into a drawer and produced a small item from it depths.

The object in question appeared to be a clear plastic bottle, small with a white safety cap. Inside it, the Uzoku could see a small grayish colored squeeze tube; it reminded him of a paint tincture tube. The grey thing was clearly labeled as 'Kawashige Super Glue'.

"So it _**was**_ human trickery! I knew it!"

"… Super glue is not human trickery, now I'm going to be collecting my debt from you."

"Gr, I refuse! You can't make me do anything."

With this Chen huffed and cross his arms. But both of them knew that demons that make vows did not usually break them casually. A great deal of their powers came from the strength of their vows, to break one was to weaken them. It was why deals and contracts to control demons were so labyrinth and complicated in general, and often ending in tragedy due to loopholes.

But the advantaged lay with Setsuko. She knew exactly what to do to get Chen to do what she wanted.

"Oh fine then, I guess I won't tell you what the doctor told me about our baby."

"…"

"Well?"

"… What is it you want me to wear?"

Defeat was a bitter experience. Things were not going the demon's way; it was probably because the table was in the wrong place. The circulation of chi was obviously affecting his luck and allowing his wife to have the upper hand against him.

He would have to move the table again in the future, preferably using this human creation 'super glue' to keep it in place for eternity.

Setsuko radiated with triumph as she quickly rifled through a small stack of magazines the human woman kept near the kitchen. Pictures of stunning young men in various suits flashed past as she happily hummed a tuneless song. The demon began to wonder why he had never noticed this particular stash of magazines before.

"Let's see… Oh, this one looks really wonderful. Italian, sharp and stylish," the pregnant swordswoman proclaimed at last.

The Uzoku forced himself to look at the picture his wife was admiring. He saw a blonde haired young man wearing well tailored western clothing. It looked utterly silly in his eyes, why were there so many different layers for the torso area? It looked like there was a under shirt, then a shirt, then a vest and then an overcoat.

Yet, he had made his vow. The crow demon closed his eyes and concentrated on his black cheongsam. The innocuous piece of clothing, was not actually cloth at all but his black feathers, soft to touch, pliant but hard as steel when he willed it. With but a thought of his mind, it began to shift and morph. The basic shape of his clothing changed, here it parted, and here it knitted together before at last came the hardest part. Changing his black feathers to reflect a light color was hard enough, but to make it white was extremely difficult as it was antithesis color.

Slowly but surely before Setsuko's eyes the black undershirt was becoming gray and then an off white before Chen gave up trying to get it pure white. It was too much hard work and his feathers were actually starting hurt from the strange change he was trying force.

"That's as far as I go," Chen muttered and watched a slow broad smile appear on Setsuko's face. The Shinmeiryu woman took a step back to admire the unusual sight of her husband dressed in western clothing. Fancy, well tailored western clothing that he would never be caught dead in if circumstances allowed it. The copy was remarkable, almost exactly like the picture in her magazine.

Except for one thing.

"You're missing hat," disappointment colored Setsuko's voice.

"The deal was suits; I don't recall hats being a part of the deal!"

A smile once more graced the Shinmeiryu woman's face as she admired her stylishly dressed husband.

"Well, I suppose this will be good enough for now. Oh I'm going to have to buy some more magazines for tomorrow as well."

The Uzoku would never admit it but he wanted to cry. Was it so wrong that he liked wearing a cheongsam or hanfu while in his pathetic human form? At least he was getting something out of the suffering.

"And news of the child?"

"Very healthy, the doctor says there's nothing wrong and I should read up on these pamphlets."

"Bah, this doctor is obviously incompetent as the last one. He barely touches upon what you should be eating! I was forced to use that communication device a week ago to call upon a real doctor in Yokohama's Tang Renjie to learn the proper foods pregnant human women should eat."

Before Setsuko could roll her eyes, she blinked in surprise.

"You mean used the telephone?"

"The dianhua? Yes, with great difficulty," Chen emphasized with a wave of his hand.

"… Okay, maybe this will work out after all," Setsuko murmured to no one in particular as she rethought the ability of Chen to blend into human society. The idea of the Uzoku using modern technology without being needled had never happened before.

"Did you say something?"

"Oh no, let's clean up the kitchen and cook dinner first. I'm really hungry. And then you can ask me all the questions you want," the swordwoman smiled as she spoke.

"Very well, but first a pronouncement regarding our child!" The Uzoku announced as he stood before his wife with the 'what to do during pregnancy' pamphlets in his hands.

"The child shall be named on the fifteenth year, on a full moon," Chen proclaimed proudly. The Uzoku had fanatically calculated the best time for naming ceremony, he was very happy with the effort he went to looking for such an auspicious day for the newest child of his clan.

"Fifteen? Why would we name our child at that age?" Setsuko asked, baffled by her husband's proclamation. The Shinmeiryu warrior knew that she missing some sort of vital information regarding Uzoku cultural habits. The Uzoku demons had a rather complicated social structure and were an astoundingly superstitious lot; giving far too much weight in things that Setsuko thought was insanely outdated.

"It is the proper age for us to give our child a name." Chen waved his hand dismissingly as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Humans name their children at birth. They need one so we can write it in the registry at city hall."

Her husband waved off such concerns with another airy wave.

"It is unseemly to hurry the creation of a good and honorable name for our child."

Yes, there was definitely a disconnect between human and demonic requirements. Setsuko wasn't looking forward to looking for a bridge between them.


End file.
